The New York Times is a great place to work. It's large enough that you can easily and quickly progress your career from entry-level engineer to manager and director on the management track or senior engineer and architect on the technology track. But it's also small enough that it feels like a community and you're not lost in a giant company. And, since the Times is a media and technology company you're able to work with a wide diversity of people on a wide range of projects. You could be working on anything from speeding up our homepage to building out a new recipe database, to building tools to cover a hurricane. We do a lot of user testing here at the Times and you get to see first hand how your work helps change people's lives. Also, it's worth mentioning that our building is amazing. It gets great light and is super convenient to anywhere in the region. And everyone gets a real desk.

Cons

The Times isn't a startup and isn't a pure technology company so we lack some of the perks you'd expect at a Google or Facebook. There aren't free lunches or haircuts. We don't have a dozen engineers cordoned off in a corner of the building working on React or Go. Compared to the big players, we're a much more lean operation. It's the media, afterall.

Advice to Management

NYC is a competitive market for engineers and technology is key to our future. We should look at our pay scales and perks and see how we fall in line with other companies in the area to make sure we're attracting the best talent.

very smart people, great work-life balance, digital is growing rapidly, lots of opportunities to try different jobs, tuition reimbursement, pretty good benefits

Cons

It's a large, older company so they can be slow to change. Sometimes hoops to jump through as expected in a larger company. Benefits could be a little better (co-pays would be better than co-insurance, and the amount you pay coincides to your income bracket so some people pay quite a lot).

Advice to Management

Sometimes the newest people have the most interesting ideas because they see the situation with fresh eyes. Be open to stepping outside of what's comfortable.

The company is family friendly and a low pressure environment. Never pressure to work nights/weekends. Smart people. Polite atmosphere, no one yells at one another.

Cons

You need to fight for good assignments. I was left with little or nothing to do a lot of the time, which gets demoralizing. Software developers don't have much role in product decision making. Newsroom is where the power resides. Bureaucracy makes decisions and product releases slow, though the company is working to change this.

Advice to Management

Give software developers more access to newsroom, and the opportunity to change assignments or technologies.

The job was varied because of the client base and large number of products we offered. We worked with cross-functional teams to create dynamic ideas for our clients and that was fun. Plus the clients themselves were terrific.

Cons

I worked for a fearful field office that was lead by a person who screened phone calls. No one asked nor cared that a rep in a field office would want a career path. Strange company, We were required to let the office know when we were walking down the hall to use the restroom.